Shanghai to scan Japanese food, cargo for radiation

Shanghai authorities have ordered detailed checks of imports from Japan for radioactivity, including on food, people and cargo, Chinese state media reported.

The Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau placed the announcement on its website earlier but later removed it.

However, the online edition of the official People’s Daily reported a detailed list of goods for which Shanghai quarantine officials would be checking for radiation, following concerns about an escalating nuclear crisis in Japan after last week’s earthquake damaged a number of reactors.

Items to be checked for radiation include produce, seafood, grains and drinking water, as well as cargo containers, post, vehicles and personnel, the People’s Daily website said.

If any problems are detected, the bureau would carry out timely quarantine measures, it added.

A person who answered the phone at the administration said that the agency had posted the notice on its website and later removed it, adding that all future notices on specific measures would come from the national quarantine agency.

China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said late on Tuesday that it had asked local quarantine bureaux to strengthen their monitoring for nuclear and radioactive materials at entry ports.

Shanghai’s port became the world’s busiest container port last year, handling more than 29 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2010. (Reuters)